reWritten

by Jako Malan

Against his better judgement and born of circumstances beyond his control, Professor van Elsburg is hired to lead a troupe of mercenaries deep into the unexplored wastelands that surround their world. Their objective: unravel the mystery surrounding an undocumented archaeological site, and to discover the fate of the last expedition that vanished whilst trying not to do the same.

reWritten is an existential horror story set in a gritty post-human world, littered with the rubble of a once-mighty civilization that fell suddenly, now inhabited entirely by anthropomorphic animals. It provides a glimpse into the origins of this crudely industrialized dystopian-utopia and the MammalAE that keep its engines oiled, its boilers fired, and its printing presses rolling.

In a world only superficially similar to our own, it asks questions that have no easy answers, and answers questions that may have been better left unasked.

Knowledge can free the mind, but it can also destroy the soul.

212 pages, Paperback

First published April 28, 2017

About the author

Jako Malan (aka. Erdbok) is an author based in Cape Town, South Africa. His style could be described as visceral and he enjoys blending different genres. He is a furry and as such most of his work is geared towards the Furry Fandom.

Reviews

[Tarl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was given a copy of this book for an honest review.

Malan has crafted a very interesting and very unique world in this novel. Where most anthropomorphic animal works take place in Europe or North America, Malan set his in Africa, which is very apparent with the animals he uses throughout the story and it creates a setting that contains a certain amount of mysticism because of it. Malan's experiences and knowledge of Africa shine through in this novel and it is a treat to read because it enriches the story and setting both.

The first thee quarters of the book are engaging and there is a mystery I was drawn into. The protagonist was being pulled into something larger than they were, and things were evolving at a pace that kept me turning the pages. Malan crafted interesting characters with believable motives, and this helped keep the mystery and action flowing from one event to the next despite the protagonist being more of a reactive character than a proactive one. I wanted to know what happened in the wasteland. I wanted to find out what happened to the humans. I wanted to know the mystery behind the hyena. (and a lot more that Malan had set up)

But this is where we come to one of the faults in the story. When it comes time for the protagonist to learn what has happened, two things occur. The protagonist experiences a few visions, which kept the mystery and alien nature of things up. These also amplify the horror of things and sow confusion into the protagonist's belief system. But when the real answers start coming near the end of the book, the reader is forced to read an extremely long and tedious exposition dump when time was supposed to be of the essence. (including a lengthy tour no less) In fact, because of this, the reader misses out on a majority of events happening outside of the complex, events that would have been far more interesting than the lecture going on with the protagonist. Couple this with a very deus ex machina solution to a long awaited confrontation, and I ended up feeling disappointed.

Now one thing that got mentioned a lot with this novel is the horror factor. Malan did a good job with this. They handled the alien air of mankind and the nature of the anthropomorphic animals wonderfully. The existential nature of it all was beautiful, and I give them full props for it and the elements related to. There were a few times where body horror was employed to shock the reader, but all but one of those were very effectively done. One scene in particular that takes place in what I believe to be an old swimming pool was masterfully done, and Malan did a good job setting up the events that led up to it which only heightened the horror factor that the protagonist had to face.

In the end, this was an enjoyable novel. I loved the characters, enjoyed the setting, and relished the horror elements. I just wish the climax of the story hadn't been such a large exposition dump. Malan could have gotten away with leaving a lot of what was explained as a mystery, and finding a more streamline manner of explaining the crucial elements needed to explain what happened to the humans and the creation of the animal people.

But still, it's a good book and one I would recommend to any reader of anthropomorphic fiction. I hope Malan does more in this setting and look forward to reading them if he is.

[J.F.R. Coates · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable and interesting book. The concept was fascinating, and the thread of the plot did unravel really well through the first half. The latter half did stutter and snag a few times with some heavy exposition as the author seemed to struggle to reveal the world he had clearly put a lot of work into.

[Suidpunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dit is 'n doodsonde dat die boek nie in Afrikaans beskikbaar is nie. Regtig. Toe ek die boek begin lees, was ek aanvanklik effens afgehaal [ek het pas Imperium Lupi deur Adam Browne op Google Play begin lees, wat veral lief is vir selfspot, selfironisering, die oor en weer meng van Oudengels met Iers, ens. ens. En selfs die gebruik van "Ulf" waar hierdie boek "Three Sisters" gebruik pleks van "G-d". Toevallig is albei boeke ook in 2017 uitgegee, wil jy nou meer!], maar, liewe leser - druk deur. Dit raak beter. Baie beter. Dink maar aan Pachelbel se Kanon in D-majeur: dit begin eers stadig...

Ek het die boek vir die heel, heel eerste maal gesien op KykNet se onderhoud, hier op YouTube te sien ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9PWy... ).

Daardie video het aanleiding gegee dat ek 'n opstel vir PRAAG geskryf het wat nogal krities is rondom subkulture ( http://praag.co.za/?p=46423 ), en, net soos die skrywer, 'n "furry-skeptikus" is. Hoewel ek steeds skaamteloos kwylend kan staar na Furry-prente; en dis die uitdaging - 'Furries' as subgenre steun sterk op die visuele element; 'n skrywer moet dus ekstra uithaal en wys.
Ek wil net om verskoning vra oor een aspek - ek het my blindelings verlaat op Amazon.de se kategorisering. Daar is geen sprake van erotiek in hierdie boek nie. Glad nie. Ek weet nie wie so 'n groot fout kon begaan nie.

Ek het die boek by my plaaslike boekwinkel op 8 Junie 2019 laat bestel. Dit is amptelik op 11 Junie 2019 spesiaal uit Amerika bestel en ek het gister, 5 Julie, die aankoms-SMS gekry en die boek in ontvangs geneem. Met my goue kredietkaart wat die praatwerk doen om 11:45:01. Vandag, 6 Julie 2019, het ek die boek met een stryk klaar gelees. [Ek moet erken, as jy gewoond is om 100 bladsye Duits per dag deur te werk, loop die Engels soos 'n sneltrein.]

Ek het myself voorgeneem - dit maak nie saak of die karakters die hele boek deur bloot op 'n klip sit en na mekaar staar nie; solank daar karakterontwikkeling is, dan sal ek tevrede wees. Jy kry soveel boeke met besige intriges, maar met die karakterontwikkeling van pionne op 'n skaakbord: nul. Sou die boek hieraan voldoen?

Ek is meer as tevrede en is bly ek het die R295,00 betaal.

Ek [as INTJ] floreer mos op sulke eksistensialistiese vraagstukke, al is ek reeds 'n geswore utilis (die nuttigheidsleer: iemand wat vas glo in die nut van dinge, en dat alles wat mens doen tot nut van die groot publiek moet wees). Sou die skrywer self een wees?

Plek-plek herinner die boek my miskien, baie, baie vaagweg, aan die rolprent Oblivion [wel, dit is die beeld wat ek in my kop gekry het met die hommeltuie en so], maar hier speel die mens die rol van die ruimtewesens. Die vraagstuk bly universeel dieselfde - as jy eers weet waar jy vandaan kom, en jy het geen doel meer nie, jou hele waardestelsel is omvergewerp, waarheen gaan jy? Terug na die maker, terug na die bron (ek skryf dit met 'n kleinletter nie uit disrespek nie, maar in konteks van die storie), wat vir my nogal 'n hartseer punt in die boek was vir die "verlore siele" wat geen deel meer het, of voel, in die samelewing nie.

Die einde is vir my ontsettend mooi, want die karakter het, in my oë, letterlik die volgende vlak van bewussyn bereik (omdat hy nou deel van die groot geheel, die groot kollektiewe onbewuste is?), juis deur sy, wat sal mens sê? - verootmoediging, wat mens wil verweef met die religie. "Ek het geen doel meer nie, gebruik my dus." 'n Pragtige metafoor.

Om te dink ek wou onwetend 'n Afrikaanse radiodrama skryf met 'n soortgelyke tema. Ek hoef nie meer nie.

En SIES! aan al die Afrikaanse hoofstroomuitgewers wat nie sulke boeke in Afrikaans wil uitgee nie.

[Gre7g Luterman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rewritten is a post-apocalyptic story with an early 1900s technology level. The world is populated only by anthropomorphic animals, and all that remains of human civilization are scattered ruins being looted for scrap metal. Like most furry stories with this setting—or at least first books in a series in this setting—the plot revolves around the characters discovering their own origin. How did the world get into this state?

Our main character, Professor M. van Elsburg, is in financial jeopardy and forced to undertake a research adventure into the wastelands because he needs the money. The wastelands are a very dangerous place where people get killed so frequently that it’s anyone’s guess how anyone is still living there. Not that the cities are much better, Bridgend—where the professor lives—is crime-ridden, and all the powerful people are mobsters.

As for reviewing the story, that’s harder to say. It wasn’t the greatest story, and it wasn’t the worst. I don’t want to rant about its shortcomings, but neither can I rave about its successes. For what it’s worth, I’m a very picky reader who is prone to giving up on stories that disappoint me, but I did read this one through to the end, so it must have merit worth recommending.

Some of what rubbed me wrong was probably cultural. J. Malan is a South African author, and as you would expect from international books, his word usage isn’t quite the same as we might expect from an American novel. Some words are used differently, some dialogue doesn’t sound like how we expect people to talk, and some verbs are conjugated in unexpected ways. The author clearly loves the word non-descript, for example, and he uses it often. He uses the term “buck” for both male and female herbivores, which was unexpected.

And though I found the plot interesting, I felt disappointed in all of the story’s missed opportunities. The main character, for example, seemed like a nice enough person, but we never fall in love with him. We don’t worry so much about whether he’ll make it. Anzac, who he meets along the way, is also pitiable, but feeling pity for a character is not the same as loving them. Likewise, at one point, the main character is forced to decide the fate of a soldier name Isando, and if the author had made us care about Isando on a personal level, then this decision would have been heart-wrenching. But as it was, I didn’t really feel that I knew anything about him.

The ending—although I wouldn’t classify it as a Deus ex machina—does get tidied up beyond the main character’s control. Yes, there is an element of sacrifice on the main character’s part, but the path he selects feels a lot like the only one that was open to him. Though he made a choice to take it, it didn’t feel so much like he could have done anything else.

The book wasn’t particularly long (just 200 pages), so it’s not like the author had to cut the story down to keep below some publication limit. He could have told us more about the characters, given us more about what the main character was thinking, and why we should love them, but he didn’t.

In short, the story was decent and better than so many that get published from within the fandom, but I can’t see loaning the paperback off to friends, saying, “You gotta read this one!”

[MikasiWolf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rewritten isn't the type of story you may expect. Full of twists and turns, with unexpected technology introduced, it borders closer to that of the realm of science fiction, rather than that of the likes of other post-apocalyptic worlds such as that of the "Divergent" series or "Mad Max: Fury Road". This is notwithstanding the fact that it is in the realm of Furry Fiction, a subgenre in which the characters are anthropomorphic animals. Based on the blurb, Rewritten is in the realm of post-apocalyptic fiction, in which Mammalæ inherited the world from humans centuries after their passing.
The story begins in a city inhabited by Mammalæ, and maintains a semblance of what we knew as human society in the 1940s, where technology such as train networks exist, but electronics as we know it such as cell phones, or even wired telephones are absent. Unlike most other stories featuring anthropomorphic animals, however, Rewritten is set in South Africa, with all the species and names reflecting that fact. There are no wolves, red foxes, bears, nor any of the usual candidate species.
Rewritten begins predictably enough; our protagonist, Professor Van Elsburg, a jackal, was approached by Oberholzer, a man of significant influence, to complete a task. Find out what is at a location marked on an old human map, and return back with his findings. The catch? It was far beyond the extents of civilization as Mammalæ knew it, with the last expedition to do so never returning.
In order to obtain the funding needed for his faculty, under a thinly-veiled threat by Oberholzer, Professor Elsburg made his way to the last town on the train network. Despite unusual happenings, he met up with the crew that would escort him to the human site, and travelled there not knowing what he would find.
The expedition took shelter in an abandoned human hospital. There, the strangeness began. Elsburg found one of the dead expedition's members, and a mentally-disturbed hyena who claimed to be able to help them. It turned out that despite the humans having ceased to exist hundreds of years back, their influence, in the form of sentient computer programming had not.
Without the risk of introducing spoilers, I would say that Rewritten is not your usual post-apocalyptic read. It may seem that way at first, but deviate abruptly from that to something more complex. Expect the unexpected, be it in the diet of Mammalæ (hint: none of them eats meat), to flashbacks that the protagonist cannot explain. Expect mind games, futuristic technology, and conspiracies hard to wrap one's head around. Some truths were never meant to be discovered.
Expect a read unlike others.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

reWritten is an horror thriller that is the result of several years of planning and building by its author, J. Malan. Malan does an excellent job of both crafting an interesting world, and populating it with genuine characters. In the midst of this he writes a story that has enough power and depth to keep the reader interested without leaving too many holes behind.

The book begins by introducing the reader to a post-human world populated entirely by intelligent mammals. These mammals live in a society similar to ours around the industrial revolution. Like us they struggle with progress marching rigorously forward as scholars struggle to learn from the past. The main character, who the reader experiences the story through, is one such scholar.

In general, reWritten strikes a good balance between action, exposition, and light horror. At times Malan rapidly brings raw horror to the forefront, but for most of the story it simply sits in the back of the reader’s mind festering. His use of non-human characters is well done and with great thought into how various species would interact with each other. Combine this with elements of mystery and dieselpunk-thriller woven in, and all the ingredients for a great story are present.

Unfortunately some of these elements don’t always reach their full potential. At times the story’s pacing is off. A few key events occur away from the main character and are then explained in detail later. The book ends with a sudden downhill dash shortly after, and then falls a little flat.
The book truly lives up to the final sentence in its description. “Knowledge can free the mind, but it can also destroy the soul.” There are a few times the events forced me to ponder human nature and the metaphysical. I relished these thoughts, more than anything it is those moments that make the book great.

reWritten is an easy read. A motivated reader could get through it easily in a weekend. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone interesting in stories about the world after we leave it. It would be great to see the author create more works with this setting, if not with the same characters.

In consideration for this honest review, I was provided with a copy.

[H · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first started reading this book, I was intrigued from the beginning by the world that was being shaped. The diesel-punk-esque society along with a confused and lost society trying to fit itself into a world it only recently came to was very interesting to me. I don't think I've ever heard anyone in the furry community have this kind of take. (Not to say it doesn't exist, but I think J. Malan is the first to /really/ implement it in such a way.)
Obviously, this will contain spoilers.
I did feel that at certain parts, the story moved a bit too quickly - especially at the beginning. In some ways, I was confused by how easily and willing the professor was to go with the rich man in the beginning, but I do suppose it also made some sense the more you learned about what a push-over he was for those around him. I personally feel things could have moved just a tad slower, drawing out some of the scenes, such as when the professor is robbed on the train (I hope he found his watch after everything!)
Now, once we got to New Town, I was all in. For some reason, that society absolutely fascinated me, even if they were cannibals. But something about it - as the professor mentioned - felt /right/ to me in the society. I dearly wish we would have seen more about how the society worked and how its hierarchy and social structure functioned, but what I did see I loved.
Past that, once we started getting to the history of 'anthro-kind', I was, at first, hesitant. I didn't like it. I was just a bit taken aback by how sudden it was and how confusing it was. BUT, by the end of the tour of anthro-kind and by the end of TierZERO's explanation, I actually really enjoyed it. It was, again, a unique take and really made me feel bad for animal-kind. We're always asking what the meaning of life is, and they had the answer - an answer that I don't think any of them wanted.
This is a great story and I can tell J. Malan put a lot of thought into it. A setting you don't see often, being in South Africa, diesel-punk and full of anthro animals, along with a lot of existential dread and questions, and a bit of fun along with it. I highly recommend it if you like gritty fantasy with a lot of dread, a bit of obscurity and some action!

[Mark Engels · Rating 5 out of 5]

Come away unsettled by this anthroporphic adventure yarn, left to ponder what in fact "being human" means.

Author Malan identifies as "a child of the 80s." They were my formative years also, influenced by Clive Barker's short story "Dread", Pink Floyd's album‎ "Momentary Lapse of Reason‎", Queensrÿche's album "Operation: Mindcrime", and Steven A. Gallacci's cornerstone-of-the-genre anthopomorphic comics "Erma Felna, EDF" and "Birthright". Parts of what I loved in all those things came to mind as Author Malan skillfully tendered his gripping narrative. Supported by vivid settings, rich characterizations, and a foreboding plot, he leaves us in the unsettling space between just who we *think* we are and who--what!--we *really* are. Plenty to stew over as I eagerly await the next "Artisans and Opportunists" novel!

[Frank LeRenard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was a good narrative about ancient mysteries, which I admit I'm kind of a sucker for. It never read as particularly fun or adventuresome to me---more an exploration of a rough, well-fleshed-out world and some of its darkest secrets. It feels very dour and violent throughout, and so the characters' personalities can come across as a bit subdued as well, but that felt appropriate. While it delves into some well-trod thematic territory, it has a take on it and a flavor to it that I haven't really seen before, too.

I wouldn't call it a page-turner, but it kept me invested, and it scored a lot of points right off the bat by having a prologue that was an immediate hook (which for me is pretty rare). Give it a shot, if you want something a little grim and a little different. I'll be reading the sequel soon, myself.

[ShingetsuMoon · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I enjoyed reading this book it ultimately felt very light on horror and minor on the thriller elements.

Still it's a well written and engaging novel that challenges the main character's ideas of how their world came to be and shows that true history is rarely as bright as it seems to those who come after.

[Frances · Rating 4 out of 5]

Malan's reWritten is at its heart an adventure story, and delivers on an intriguing premise and a diverse cast and setting that will please just about any reader of anthropomorphic fiction or any fan of scifi adventure as well.

The writing is highly descriptive and reminiscent of more classic works, but it fits with the protagonist's character, a slightly stuffy professor who's usual adventures don't take him too far from his front door.

Despite the lovely prose, I had a hard time embedding in the story, which I felt didn't really get going until well into part two or even part three, which is where I felt the main character really first displays any sort of independent agency. Before that he is very much pushed and pulled by outside forces, though the mystery surrounding him does offer enough intrigue to keep the reader's attention.

I just wanted to attach more or feel more empathy sooner than I eventually did, and that felt like perhaps the hook came a little late, at least for me.

The ending really twisted in interesting ways for me. I found the big reveals wonderfully unexpected, and the final pages tied up in a nice satisfying package that still left me wanting more from the universe.

I give it a solid four star rating, mostly because the pacing of the hook felt a bit tardy at the start, but I also hope very much for a sequel to shed more light on the mystery of this world.

*I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.*